The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-11-30

his friends that no Is preparing PLAN
that will insure him an independent
fortune in short time. He INDUCES
In the most extravagant purchases.
Although ut first irritable and rest
less, he soon assumes and extreme
cheerfulness. II he stops TO greet a
neighbor 1t is with more than usual
warmth. lie tells you that he feels
'iirst rate" and presses your hand
with ardor. He leaves you so sudden
ly that you feel puzzled by his change
of manner.
Gradually, but surely. the disease de-
velops. and at last come the clear.
sharp symptoms of profound mental
alteration. The paretic INDUCES In
some sudden freak of violence, and his
friends are forced to place him under
restraint Visions of wealth. before
which the marvels of Aladdin's lamp
appear insignificant, are conjured up
by the overweight imagination of the
excited paretc He is q maker OF
worlds-not for financial purposes but
merely for the sake of employment
He forgets familiar names-even his
own. Occasionally person in this
stage becomes kleptomaniac, and is
unusually sly and cunning.
Then he passed into the chronic
stage which is marked by steady en-
aggeration of all the physical indica-
tons and gradual subsistence of the
deusions which have been cherished.
An unsteadiness of gait is now pro-
nounced; there is tremulousness OF lips
| -, ha, Of IN
face loses its lines of intelligence and
assumes fat, ilabby, expressonless
contour, and IN manner and speech
there is a marked decadence of physi-
cal and mental powers. The appetite
and thirst at this stage become enor-
nous, and an increase IN flesh is
noticeable.
The progress of the chronic state is
at last interrupted by commissions and
the paretic loses ground rapidly. The
mind fails and the conditions OF
demenlia supervene. The physical
strength wanes and the body emaclatcs.
The skin breaks out in eruptions.
Then" said DR.. Talcoti, "lhe
patient takes to his bed, and this is
followed by bed sores. The patient
often clings to life for weeks after the
frail thread that holds him seems eaten
away to the last fral fiber Yet he
persists in living. II is one of the re-
markable features of this disease that
the patient continues to live long after
all the forces of life appear TO be eX.
hausted. Death comes at last through
utter exhaustion. But with the last
articulate breath of life the dying man,
corrugating his countenance into a
ghastly smile, will reply to your inquiry
as to how he feels with the stock ex-
preston: First rate"
"And once stricken with paress, n
patient never rccovcrsP" qucried the
reporter.
II believe that no wel-authentcated
case, where it has been fully developed
and where no doubt could exist rs to
the diagnosis, has been placed on re-
cord as fully recovered and has con-
tinued so for five successive years. The
patient often appears TO mend, and
will, in fact, 60 for months with very
few of the outward signs of the sease,
but sooner or later the storm which
has experienced a temporary lull vii
rise again and move on with resistless
fury"
After passing through the chronic
stage" continued the doctor, ''the
patients strength and physical health
may be long preserved by abundant
outdoor exercise"
How can this dreadful disease be
prevented"
by applying the check-re'n of pre-
vention rather than trying to engage in
the almost hopeless task of seeking to
save the shattered fragments of a
wreck. People must refrain from those
formidable designations whose feet
take hold on destruction, whose bite
is like that of an adder, and whose
final result is hopeless chamber and
deathbed within the walls of an insane
asylum.
"The cares and afll ctions of ordinary
life. the atil ctions of disease, the hered
itary weakness which come down 20
us from our ancestors, all bring to in
situations for the insane their quota OF
suffering victims; but many of these
may be in time returned to renewed
health and life of usefulness. But for
him who, through alcoholic stimulants
and excuses, progresses to pares's.
there are no more cheering words
than those engraved upon the portals
of Dante's "Inferno. "--''Who enters